Philippians is an epistle of Paul, written while he was a prisoner at Rome, perhaps in AD 62. Its theme is the adequacy of Christ for all the experiences of life-privation, persecution, hardship, suffering, as well as prosperity and popularity. Jesus gives joy and triumph whatever may come, if he is allowed to be the center of life. Seven of the epistles of Paul were written from prison, Philippians Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, I and II Timothy, and Titus.

Judea was now plainly on the edge of revolt, and his judges would take a grave view of a commotion aroused in the Judean center. It was not the prosecution but Paul himself who made Christianity the issue. This, he indicates, was his defence - that he was not a political rebel, but a Christian, and was in bonds for the sake of the gospel. The letter was sent by Epaphroditus, who was returning to Philippi after his recovery, much earlier than he was expected.

The keynote of that letter is joy. In the prison, amid general desertion. Left face to face with God, Saint Paul seems as if the one thought which inspires his whole being is, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice". The epistle of Philippians shows a love working in stillness, a love ever unwearied, never exhausted, thoroughly proved and approved itself. Paul could at least talk of the gospel to his guards, and through them reach a wider circle with his message. And he could keep in touch with his old friends and rejoice in these circumstances.
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The Lord has given Christians the grace to reconcile the children to their Fathers